Fête Nationale - Parade

The last time we were in France during the Fête Nationale (July 14th known in the US as Bastille Day) we saw the fireworks but somehow missed the parade and ceremonies.  So this time we made sure we saw the parade.  The parade route was on Cours Franklin Roosevelt, a lovely wide avenue lined with trees, and there were flags hanging across the street along the length of the parade.  Quite a lovely, festive sight!

The parade route before the parade.

The parade itself consisted of various military, police,and fire units.  There were no marching bands, but there was a large band stationed near the grandstand, and their music was projected via speakers along the parade route.  The band played a wide variety of music, even including selections from Phantom of the Opera, but, curiously, no Marseillaise.

The legendary French Foreign Legion - They marched in slow march time; very impressive!

Firefighters - those are axes they are carrying.  Also, note the police officer on the left.  Officers were stationed along the route for crowd control;"ours" was quite pleasant and answered questions, etc.

Here's the Army. (Apologies to all you Navy fans - my picture of the Navy is blury.)

Police motorcycle unit waiting its turn to get into the parade.

And, no parade would be complete with Fire and Rescue vehicles!

The spectators were enthusiastic, applauding at the appropiate times and taking lots of pictures, as you can see on the phone on the bottom left of the picture above.  In fact it was a lot like parades in the US.  It even started a bit late - the French woman next to us. said that was "so like the French!" and smiled.

After it ended we found a little bistro on a side street and enjoyed a pleasant rosé as we watched parents taking their very excited, tired, hungry children home for dinner.